News from EPI › Buffett Rule could create 43,000 jobs in 2013 and 95,000 jobs per year from 2014 through 2017

Buffett Rule could create 43,000 jobs in 2013 and 95,000 jobs per year from 2014 through 2017

A new EPI report finds that the proposed tax provision known as the Buffett Rule could help create about 43,000 jobs in 2013 and roughly 95,000 jobs per year from 2014 through 2017. In The employment impact of coupling the Buffett Rule with job creating investments, EPI Senior Policy Analyst Ethan Pollack explains that implementing the most widely supported legislation to apply the Buffett Rule, the Paying a Fair Share Act of 2012, would raise about $60 billion over the next five years and nearly $163 billion over a decade. This money could then be invested in high-impact job-creation measures such as infrastructure.

Every state would benefit from the job-creation impact of the Buffett Rule, including states with a disproportionately large share of high-income taxpayers. The report includes calculations of how many jobs would be created in each state over the next five years.

Currently, many high-income taxpayers are taxed at a lower rate than middle-income workers because capital gains and dividends—income derived from existing wealth—are taxed at a top rate of 15 percent, while income derived from work is taxed at a top rate of 35 percent. The Paying a Fair Share Act of 2012 would close the preferential rates on capital gains and dividends by requiring taxpayers with incomes over $1 million to pay at least 30 percent of their adjusted gross income (less charitable contributions) in federal taxes. Without the Buffett Rule, average federal income tax rates actually peak at around $1 million in income and then start falling as households collect a greater share of income from investments, allowing nearly a quarter of millionaires to pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than do millions of middle-class households.

“Implementing the Buffett Rule would make the tax system fairer, and it would generate much-needed revenue to invest in job-creation measures such as repairing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure,” said Pollack.

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EPI is an independent, nonprofit think tank that researches the impact of economic trends and policies on working people in the United States. EPI’s research helps policymakers, opinion leaders, advocates, journalists, and the public understand the bread-and-butter issues affecting ordinary Americans.